Spring-wheel.



I J. SANDERS.

' SPRING WHEEL.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 3, 1912.

Patented Jan. 21, 1913.

2 SHEETE-SHEBT 1.

WITNESSES NVENTOR Jase b6 dars% M E/MA fi t 1 Attorney J. SANDERS.

I SPRING WHEEL.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 3, 1912 Patented Jan. 21, 1913.

' IIIVVENTOR g I 4., Atlorn:y

WITNESSES glad/Wag I Josnrn SANDERS, or wasnmeron, ms'mc'roroommnmseams-WHEEL.

' Original application med March 6, 1912, Serial no. es

Specification or Letters Patent. Patented J an.i21 ,'1 91 3,

lass. Divided and um application em in; 3,1912,

Serial No. 707,608.

To all whom it mag concern:

v Be it known that I, Josnrn SANDERS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Washington, in the District of Columbia, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Spring-Wheels, of which thefollowing is a, specification.

This invention relates to the subject of vehicle wheels, and moreparticularly to that type of Wheels known as spring wheels,

' intended to provide a resilient or spring effect in the manner ofpneumatic tires such as commonly employed on the wheels of motorvehicles. contemplates certain novel and practical improvements inspring wheels which securetheoretically correct provision for'receivingand absorbing all shocks and stresses communicated in any and alldirections to the tire of the wheel while rolling or being 7 driven overa surface In this connection,

the invention has especially in viewa thoroughly practical means forutilizing the supporting and resilient properties of springsin such amanner as to provide .a

wheel for driving or driven purposes which shall -have a peripheralresilience, equivalent, for all substantial purposes, to that possessedby the Well known pneumatic tire. Without the disadvantages of thepneumatic tire the present invention provides a spring wheel having amaximum resiliency and life, and embodying spring elements.

arranged 'n such a manner as to secure uniform yiel ing thereof. Also,the mounting and arrangement of the spring elements are so designed asto provide awide range of sensitivenes's, so as to respond to light andheavy shocks, and this feature also involves the floating of the movablerimmember in such a manner that there is a responsive yield to thecorresponding spring elements in action, when a shock or stress isimposed upon any one of the said elements.

A further object of the invention .is to provide an arrangement andmounting of the spring elements that not only secures a,

uniform distribution of the load, shocks, and stressesthroughout, butalso provides a construction that effectively takes care of the torqueTo this end the invention A. still further object of the invention isto-provide a simple and separable construction that admits of readyassembling, and

ready taking apart of the wheel for purposes of repair and adjustment.

.Wl h these and many other the. nature of the invention 'is better1111-; derstood,'the same consists in the novel .con-

struction, combination and arrangement of parts, hereinafter more fullydescribed, illustrated and claimed.

While the invention is necessarily susceptible to embodiment indifferent kinds of I objectsv in .v1e. w, which W111 more readily appearas wheels, and is also capable of various structural modifications,without departing from the spirit or scope thereof, certainpracticalembodiments are shown in the accompanylng drawings, in whichFigure 11s a sectional elevation of a. portion of a spring wheelembodying thepresent invention. Fig. ,2 is an enlarged circumferentialsectional view of a portion of, the yielding rim structure. Fig. 3 is a]cross sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig.2.

Fig. 4 isa similar view onthe line H of Fig.2. Fig. 5 is a detaildiagrammatic view of one afthe wire-bundle units, showing by dotted andfull lines the normal, straight condition of the bunch, and the workingflexed condition of the bunch, the latter illustration indicating thefeature of the individual" strands being unconnected and having freeends, which permits the sliding: over and upon one another, thuspreserving the full resiliency and action of each strand. Figs6 is adetail view showing a modification that may be resorted to in'the meansfor seating thefree ends of the wirebundle units, thus decreasing wear,making a lighter structure, and eheape'ning and facilitatingmanufacture. I

Like references designate corresponding parts in the several figures ofthe drawings.

In carrying out the present invention. very careful consideration hasbeen taken of the fact that in order to provide'a practical spring wheelembodying spring elements or spring wires arr-an ed laterally orsubstantially parallel to t e axis of the wheel. it is necessary to havea suflicient number of that the life of the spring be of reasonabledurationthe deflection must not be so great as to give a fiber stressgreater than the elastic limit of the metal.

Tests which have been made by me show that the tire member must have anelastic motion of not less than one quarter of an inch. To obtain suchdeflection with a spring, the length of which does not exceed thatpermissible for the wheels and tires in ordinary use, and still keep thefiber stress within the elastic limit, requires a very thin strands ofspring steel.

'wire even when the best metal is used. A tire of four inches in widthwould have an effective spring length of. not over three andthreequarters inches. A spring of this length supported at its center andhaving its ends deflect one-quarter of an inch.

would, in order not to exceed a fiber stress of .6

150,000 pounds for a square inch, have a diameter of about .040. A roundwire spring of .040 of an inch diameter and three and three-quarters ofan inch would have a carrying capacity of less than one pound or amaximum deflection of one quarter of an inch. It is therefore, evidentthat, with a wheel load of only 500 pounds representing in'a fourwheeled vehicle a total weight and load of only 2,000 pounds, it wouldtake 500 of such springs and at that would, standing still, deflect themto their full elastic limit. Added to this, with the stress due toshocks and power in driving, it will be evident that several thousandofsueh springs must be used.

The impossibility of commercial manufacturing will be understood at oncewhen it is considered that for one wheel of 2,000 springs, it wouldrequire, 6.000 holes of .040 of an inch diameter to be drilled, and2,000 clamping devices, to hold them in place and the assembling andlocating the springs in their proper holes would be next to impossible.As far as is present known to me, the prior art does not disclose apractical way of overcoming these difliculties above mentionedto renderpracticable the use of spring supporting elements within and about thewheel to give to it a resiliency equivalent to or approaching that of apneumatic tire. Accordingly, outthe present invention I propose inpractice toemploy relatively very thin wire The lack of supportingstrength in these strands is fcompensated for by the use of a largenumber thereof. One made and successfully tested on an automoblle ofabout 1,300 pounds in weight,

in carrying of the wheels which I have.

has approximately eighteen hundred of said strands. However, the use ofthis large number of thin wires is made entirely practicable andpossible. by bunching the same into bundles wit-h the individual wirestrands unconnected and their ends free to move. and action of eachstrand in the bundle, while the combined strands of each bundleaggregately produce a spring unit of relatively great supportingstrength, as well as resiliency.

In the embodiment illustrated in the drawing, there is shown an ordinarywheel having the invention applied thereto as an attachment. Referringto this illustration,

the wheel body includes the usual hub 1,

spokes 2, and felly 3. At the outer end of the spokes or upon the fel-ly3, there is arranged an inner fixed rim member 4, preferably in'the formof a bandof T-shape in This conserves the full resiliency cross sectionand whose circumferential rib 5 is pierced by a series of holdingopenings which receive the central portions, by a driving fit orotherwise, of the wire-bundle units 7. The opposite free ends of theseunits are received in the flared or equivalent bearing sockets 8, whichare provided in the opposite parallel supporting cheek plates 9. Thesecheek plates lie against the opposite side edges of the inner rim member4 and combine therewith to give lateral rigidity and strength to thestructure, while the said rim member 4 also resists lateral thrust. Theside cheek plates 9 are carried by and are movable with an outer movablerim member 10 which is yieldingly supported by and from the .springsupporting units 7. Various means may be employed for detachablysecuring the cheek plates to the outer rim member 10, as for instance byproviding said rim member at its opposite inner edges with rabbetedseats 11 and 12. in one ofwhich is seated the outer edge of one cheekplate 9, and in the other of which seat 12 is seated the head 18 of tiebolts 14, extending through unthreaded opening 15 in one check plate,and having threaded tips 16 engaged in threaded openings 17 in the othercheek plate 9 preferably riveted to prevent loosening from vibration.This structure is provided for the ready and easy assemblinganddisassembling of all parts of the invention whenever required ornecessary. The outer rim member 10 may be of a channeled formation toreceive therein a solid rubber or equivalent tire tread 18, which may beof various forms, either solid as suggested in'Fig. 1 or of the doubleribbed -and transversely grooved type illustrated in Figs. 2, 3, and 4,though it will be understood that any form of tire tread constructionwill be available for this purpose.

From the foregoing description it will be strands of each unit beingunconnected, and

, having free ends which thus permits, as

shown in Fig. 7, them to'slide over and upon one another, whereby thefull resiliency and action of each strand is preserved while .in theaggregate they provide for a relatively great supporting strength. Theflare of the sockets 8 is intended to permit of this play andself-adjustment of the free ends of the wire strands of each unit andfor easy assembling, and in this connection it w1ll be noted, that apractical modification that may be resorted to is suggested in Fig. 8,and

consists in using cheek plates 9 of comparatively thin metal that can bepunched with holes 19 to receive therein, by a driying fit or otherwise,the closed end portions 20 of flaring steel bushings 21 which constitutethe bearing sockets for the ends of the units. This construction makesassembling easy and also permits the use of hardened steel for thebearings of the hard steel wires. Also the use of thinner metal ispermitted for the cheek plates or rings, and the cheaper process ofpunching, instead of drilling, the holes may be resorted to.

A feature of practical importance in carrying ,out function of the tiebolts 1 1. It will be'observed from the drawings that these bolts lie inthe radial plane of'clearance notches 14 formed at intervals in the edgeof the peripheral rib 5 of the inner fixed rim memer 4:. sent bottomabutments a and stop shoulders b. In this connection, it is to beunderstood that the notches 14 not only provide clear-Q ance for the tiebolts, but also present stops or abutments that check and arrestabnormal torsional strain, as well as shocks and strains in radialdirections. Under excessive loads the tie bolts 14 come into solidengagement with the abutments a at the bottom of the clearance notches,while torsional strain due to sudden starting or to other strains orshocks is checked or arrested by the engagement of the bolts 14 with theshoulders 6, thus protecting and safe-guarding the whole structure, andmaterially, contributing to its durability and service.

From the construction described, it will be observed that the provisionof a large circumference relative to the weight carried gives durablebearings and also prevents the turning of the wire bundle-units inthecenter support. Furthermore it is observed in case of defects in andthe-breaking of one or more of the individual wire strands, that noappreciable loss or damage is sustained the invention resides in thedual Each of these clearance notches preon account of the very largenumber of wires embodied in the structure, being very, thin they willnot damage or interfere with working. At the same time the readyaccessibility of every part of the structure admits of cheap and easyrepairs. Another feature of utility in the practical operation of theinvention is that of the bundle acting as a sponge or holder for thelubricant.

The subject matter of this application is a dlvislon of the applicantspending application filed March 6, 1912, and bearing Serial Number681,883, the claims of which appli cation are directed to a preferredform of the invention which includes a plurality of openings formed insets of difierent radial dimensions, and spring members combiningtherewith to constitute reserve spring supports.

I claim: 1

1. A spring wheel construction including fixed and movable members, anda circumferential series of spring wire units having free ends, each ofsaid units consisting of bunched strands of spring wires whose ends arefree to move.

2. A spring wheel construction including fixed and movable members, anda circumferent-ial series of spring wire units having free ends, each ofsaid units consisting of bunched strands of straight spring wires whoseends are free to move.

3. A spring wheel construction including fixed and movable members, anda circumferential series of spring'wire units having free ends, each ofsaid units consisting of bunched strands of round spring wires whoseends are free to move.

4. A spring wheel construction including fixed and movable members, anda circumferential series of spring wire units of uniform cross sectionand having free ends, each of said units consisting of bunched strandsof spring wires whose ends are free to move. J

5. A spring wheel construction including fixed and movable members, anda circumferential series of spring wire units having free ends, each ofsaid units consisting of bunched strands of straight, round spring wireswhose ends are free to move, and all of said units in said series beingarranged to respond in unison to the load and torque.

, 6. A spring wheel construction including fixed and movable members oneof which is provided with a bearing, a spring wire unit having a freeend disposed within said bearing, and consisting of bunched strands ofspring wires whose ends are free to move in said bearing.

7. A spring wheel having a rim member provided with a central rib havingholding openings therein, a series of wire-bundle units held in thecenter of said-opening, a

movable rim member having rabbeted seats at its edges, side cheek plateshaving bearing socketsfor receiving the end portlons of said units, andone of said cheek plates engaging in one of said rabbeted seats, and thebolts detachably connecting the two cheek plates and having headsengaging in the other of said seats.

JOSEPH SANDERS.-

-Witnesses:

MARY K. KOOGLE, EMORY LOWELL GROFF.

